1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to noodles having a handmade-like quality and an apparatus for producing the same.
2. Related Art Statements
It has been known that noodles having a thickness varied in a longitudinal direction have a handmade-like quality. In Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publications Kokai-Hei 6-38663 and Kokai 2000-116310, there have been proposed known apparatuses for making such noodles having a handmade-like quality. In the known apparatuses, a special pressing or molding roll set is used to make a flattened noodle belt whose thickness varied in a longitudinal direction. After forming the noodle belt, the flattened noodle belt is cut into fine noodles with the aid of a conventional cutting roll set.
In the known noodle processing apparatuses, a series of plural pressing roll sets are provided. In order to make the noodle belt having a thickness varying in the longitudinal direction, one or more pressing roll sets must be replaced by one or more special pressing roll sets. However, this replacing work is very difficult and consumes a longer time. Therefore, an efficiency of the processing line forming a plural kinds of noodles is decreased.
In usual noodle producing factories, a plural kinds of noodles are processed in a single processing line. It is required to change the processing line between plural kinds of noodles in an easy and prompt manner.